To:
the Canadian federal goverment and the Standing Committee on Health (HESA)

Let's Make Cannabis a Truly Sustainable Industry

Call on the Canadian federal government to include strong environmental regulations in their plans for cannabis legalisation.

Canada is set to launch the legal cannabis industry in 2018. Elsewhere this industry is being run in ways that are heavily polluting: drawing incredible amounts of energy and water, contributing to climate change, creating tonnes of plastic packaging waste, and causing soil degradation and nutrient-loading in waterways from pesticide runoff.

This is already the story with legal cannabis in the US, where “…one square foot of indoor marijuana cultivation uses four times more energy than the same space in a hospital, eight times more energy than a commercial building...”*

This doesn’t have to be the story in Canada. One of the great things about legalization is the opportunity to apply environmental regulations – and to include them from the outset.

Why is this important?

We have an opportunity to create a sustainable industry from the ground up. But, without strong environmental standards, legalizing cannabis could have far-reaching negative environmental effects.

Call on the government to make strong environmental standards that will minimize energy and water use, restrict waste, and prevent harmful impacts to wildlife.

There are technologies and practices already being used elsewhere that could be applied to this industry as standards, ensuring all operations minimize energy and water use, advance water recycling and renewable energy, grow without harmful chemical inputs, and minimize the waste, in particular the use of plastics in product packaging.